


Right Back Where We Started From

by Nigellanovela



Category: La casa de papel | Money Heist (TV)
Genre: Eventual Smut, F/F, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Please Don't Hate Me, Romance, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-15
Updated: 2021-03-22
Packaged: 2021-03-24 05:28:18
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,202
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30067386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nigellanovela/pseuds/Nigellanovela
Summary: It's been sixteen years since Sergio and Raquel last saw each other. Since going their separate ways after university, both have moved on with their lives and have followed completely different paths, losing all contact with one another. But now, all these years later, they happen to meet again. Can they be friends?.. Can they be something more?.. Or has too much time passed for them to ever be something to one another again?
Relationships: Raquel Murillo/Professor | Sergio Marquina
Comments: 30
Kudos: 50





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys, I’m back with a brand new story!
> 
> This idea came to me a while back and I just haven’t been able to let it go. Please stick with me, we do jump back and forward in time a bit, but I hope you can follow it and decide to stick with it until the end. 
> 
> Just a couple of things to highlight:  
> Sergio and Raquel are both 37 and we flash back 16 years ago at some points… that’s all I’ll say on that.  
> It is a slow burn and slightly angsty, this is completely different to my last story and it will be a bit of a slow burner so please bear with me!  
> There is no Paula in this universe, she does not exist. (Sorry if you were hoping for another cutie pie Paula like in my previous fic!)  
> Raquel has never been married in this universe.
> 
> On that note, let’s go. Please let me know what you think! x

….  
….

Of course it was raining. It was _always_ raining in Madrid lately. The sky had been ominous and grey for what felt like weeks, the heavens finally opening two days ago and not letting up, not for one minute. 

It was fitting really, it summed up her mood - her current foul mood that seemed to be the only constant in her shitty life. 

Raquel tugged her sweater tighter around her body as she looked at the puddles forming on the street outside her window. She gave herself a final once over in the bedroom mirror before wandering back out to the living room, grabbing the half drunk bottle of wine from the kitchen counter along the way. 

“Honestly, you think I’m joking but I’m not,” she mumbled as she entered the room, unscrewing the bottle top to refill the three glasses perched on the coffee table. She took a large sip before putting the glass back on the table and throwing herself down into the armchair, her posture as defeated and forlorn as she currently felt.

“But… How? What do you mean you’re done with men?”

Raquel glared at her friends, her arms folded across her chest angrily, unable to sink any further into the tiny couch she was currently lounging on. 

“Exactly that Món, I’m done. That’s what I mean. No more men for me.”

Silene sniggered, “Oh _come on!_ You’re not serious, surely? It’s a break up Raquel, we all go through them - besides, Alberto was a dick, so you’re well rid.”

“I’m well aware he was a dick, thank you very much,” Raquel huffed. “But the fact of the matter is, I’m done with men, done with women, done with everyone… just done. I’ll live alone, I’ll get a-a cat, or something like that. My love life and any relationships are a thing of the past.”

She meant it, after eighteen months of giving her all to someone that she cared about - and thought cared about her - only to find out he was screwing her yoga teacher behind her back… Raquel really was done with relationships. 

“So that’s it?” Mónica murmured, eyebrows raised in disbelief. 

“Yes. Absolutely. I’m celibate from here on out.”

Silene rolled her eyes as she scoffed. “Come on Miss Celibate, let’s go out and get drunk then.”

Raquel managed a half smile, her best friends never failing to cheer her up. When she’d gone to Alberto’s house earlier that day to surprise him with lunch, she’d walked in on him and Francesca going at it on the dining room table. It was an image she didn’t think she’d ever be able to wipe from her mind, no matter how hard she tried. Not only was it her partner of the last year and a half screwing another woman - a much skinnier and leggier woman at that, although she was _definitely_ not going to let her brain go there - but the image of Alberto’s sweaty ass writhing around was enough to put her off the chopped salad she was holding in her arms as she watched the two of them in stunned silence. 

Raquel knew she was well rid of him, Alberto had always been a prize prick, but she’d never imagined he’d actually cheat on her, so seeing him fucking another woman right in front of her was the final nail in the coffin. She’d been unsure on the future of their relationship anyway, but seeing that was confirmation that she _definitely_ didn’t want or need him in her life. 

When the two of them noticed she was standing in the doorway, they’d scrambled apart and covered themselves with their hands, but it was too little too late, Raquel had seen into dark places that _no-one_ should ever have to look - she shuddered at the memory. The two of them had declared that they'd fallen in love and were sorry, so ultimately Raquel couldn’t have taken him back even if she’d wanted to - _not_ that she wanted to of course. She nodded silently as she listened to them, muttered an embarrassed apology about disturbing them, slipped his door key off of her keyring as the three of them stood in awkward silence, then left the two bowls of salad on the table next to the door, telling them in a panic that they could have them, before she all but ran away, shuddering as the image of Alberto’s wrinkly balls remained tattooed behind her eyelids. 

She didn’t want Alberto, she’d never even really loved him, but the sudden realisation of what had just happened hit her as she began walking down the street, and it hurt, it _really_ hurt. So Raquel had messaged her two best friends, telling them to come to her apartment as soon as possible so that they could get drunk and go out dancing. The more Raquel reflected on everything, it was funny really, almost ironic... Her life was turning into a badly written rom-com - but with all the com and _very little_ rom. 

Shaking her head, she snapped out of her daydream, the three women quickly downing the remaining wine in their glasses. They slipped on their jackets and headed out the door together.

“Maybe we can find you a one night stand, that ought to cheer you up,” Mónica said with a smirk as they walked down the hall towards the elevator.

Raquel threw back her head with a laugh. “Absolutely fucking not. No way! Tonight, it’s girls night. I want to pretend that men don’t exist please, just for one night at least.”

“Well then cariño,” Silene said as she wrapped an arm around Raquel’s shoulders, squeezing her tight. “Girls night it is.”

Yes, definitely, Raquel was done with dating. Relationships were more trouble than they were worth… _and that was that_. 

….

“Are you almost ready? It’s near enough impossible to get a taxi in this city on a regular evening, let alone when it’s raining like this.”

Sergio fastened the buttons on his jacket as he stood by the window, watching the rain fall without mercy. The weather was awful in Madrid lately, had it always been like that? He really couldn’t remember. 

Andrés hurried into the living room, flinging his coat on in a rush, well aware that they were already late in leaving and not wanting to cause anymore stress. 

“Yes, sorry, I couldn’t find my cufflinks and then my assistant called me to discuss my appointments tomorrow-“

Sergio nodded absentmindedly, hardly paying attention to what his brother was blabbering on about. 

“Is the weather always this awful here in February?” he interrupted eventually, tracing a finger down the cold and condensed glass in front of him. 

Andrés chuckled before answering. “You act like you’ve never been to Madrid before. You lived here for five years, surely you remember how much it rains in the winter?”

“Of course I know it rains, but this is something else… It hasn’t stopped since I got here yesterday, the streets are starting to flood. Besides, I haven’t lived here for fourteen years, I’m hardly going to remember something as mundane as the weather forecast am I?”

“Okay, okay,” Andrés said, raising his hands in surrender as he studied his brother's face. “What’s wrong with you, you seem all tense?”

Sergio turned to face him, nudging his glasses up his nose before replying. “N-nothing’s wrong, I just want to get going seeing as we are already late. I need to get to the hotel to sign the documents before ten, otherwise they will release the date I’ve reserved for August.”

Andrés squinted as he nodded slowly, not quite believing his brother, but dropping the matter without further questioning. He could read Sergio’s nervousness and anxiety from a mile away, he just wasn’t entirely sure what was triggering it, but he knew not to push him any further into his shell.

“Fine, if you’re sure. I’m ready now anyway,” he said as he looked down at his watch. “At nine twenty as well, plenty of time to make it to the hotel before ten o’clock to confirm your precious August date. Come on.”

The pair of them headed for the door, Andrés pulling it closed behind him and securing the lock - checking it twice. If anyone broke in and trashed the house while he was out, Martín would have his balls. 

Sergio popped open his umbrella as they began walking down the street, the two of them huddling close together underneath it. Of course Andrés wouldn’t bring his own, god forbid he’d have to carry something other than his enormous ego, Sergio thought with an internal eyeroll. 

“When’s Martín back from Tokyo?” Sergio said after a minute or two of them comically trying to dodge puddles. 

“In a few days. He’s just tying up some loose ends in the office over there,” Andrés replied with a smile. He’d missed his husband and couldn’t wait to have him back, his life was far too boring and quiet without him. 

“Remind me to book into a hotel the day he returns if I’m still here,” Sergio muttered with a grimace. He definitely didn’t want to walk in on them again, that seemed to be a common occurrence whenever he came to Madrid to visit his brother. In the fourteen years Sergio had been living in Valencia, he’d only visited Madrid a handful of times, preferring to meet his brother halfway between their respective homes, or having Andrés and Martín come to him for the weekend. But whenever he’d visited Madrid and chosen to stay with them, he’d always, _always_ walked in on them in a compromising position. No, that definitely wasn’t something he wanted to repeat in a hurry. 

Andrés laughed heartily. “You’ll definitely want to book into a hotel if you're still here. I haven’t seen him for three weeks.”

Sergio grunted in dismay. That was far too much information.

“Anyway,” Andrés continued as he reached out a hand to flag down a passing taxi, “how is the apartment hunting going?”

Sergio sighed. “As well as can be, there aren’t many out there, but I’ve found two that I like the look of - although it’s not as simple as that. I’ll go and check them out tomorrow to see what they are like in reality, make sure they are suitable and everything.”

“And… are you happy - to be moving back to Madrid I mean? Like you said, you haven’t lived here for fourteen years.”

Sergio thought about it for a moment as he lowered the umbrella, the two of them quickly bundling into their waiting cab and informing the driver of their intended destination. Was he happy to be moving back to Madrid? He wasn’t entirely sure. Him and Andrés had been born and raised in San Sebastian, with Sergio only moving to Madrid to attend university. He’d stayed in the city for two years after graduating, but eventually he’d fallen out of love with the place he’d come to call home, so he’d packed his bags and moved to Valencia, where he’d currently been residing for fourteen years and building a life for himself. But now a job opportunity had arisen in Madrid, and it was something only an idiot would say no to, so once more he was packing up and moving - back to the city he’d sworn to never live in again. 

“I am in a way, I suppose. I do like it here, a-and it will be nice to be nearer to you. It’ll be strange to call this place home again, but it’ll be a welcome change of pace from Valencia.” 

Andrés grinned, “aren’t you sweet. Looking forward to living closer to your old brother. I’m touched.”

“Fuck off,” Sergio mumbled, but he couldn’t help the smile from forming on his face. 

“No, but seriously,” Andrés said. “I know I’ve only lived here for six years, but I can’t imagine living anywhere else now, and honestly, me and Martín can’t wait for you to move back here. We can go out for meals after work and drinks every weekend, it’ll be great.”

Sergio chuckled. “I don’t think me going out with you two every weekend will be a possibility, but I appreciate the sentiment.”

A long moment of silence passed between them, the two of them staring out of the windows and watching the rain relentlessly fall. 

After a minute Sergio said: “I just need to focus on finding an apartment first. I start my new job in two weeks and I need to find somewhere to live, return to Valencia to pack everything up, _and_ get back here and settled before I start. It’s a lot to deal with before I can even think about anything else, _especially_ going out drinking with you at the weekends.”

Andrés laughed quietly. “You’ll be fine. You’ll find somewhere tomorrow and then you can head straight back to Valencia and get everything sorted there before coming back here… you’ll see. Honestly Sergio, you panic too much, dad always said your worrying would be the death of you.”

Sergio smiled again at the memory of their father and his calming persona, hoping more than anything that he’d made him proud with his life choices thus far. Their dad had always adored Madrid, and he imagined he’d be thrilled to see his youngest son moving back there at long last. 

Silence fell over them once more, no more needing to be said between the two of them for the remainder of their journey. As the taxi hurtled through the city towards the Mandarin Oriental hotel, Sergio hoped that this move back to Madrid would be the right decision for him and the life he’d built for himself. He prayed silently that he wouldn’t be opening up old wounds and memories that needed to stay closed by moving back, but he tried to not let his mind wander down that unwelcome route. He had an established career and was living a happy life, _that_ was how it needed to stay… _and that was that._

….  
….

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know they haven’t actually interacted yet, but this chapter was really important for the background of the story and to understand where they currently are in their lives. (More will be revealed in ch2).
> 
> I hope you’re intrigued, there’s a lot I haven’t shared about either of them yet… all will be uncovered soon. You probably have a lot of questions, but all will be revealed, I promise. 
> 
> Also, the chapters will get longer, the first couple are setting the scene and don’t need to be ridiculously long. But I assure you they get long and juicy veryyyy soon. 
> 
> Please let me know what you’re thinking so far - comments, questions and theories are always massively appreciated! x


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much to all of you for your support on this new story idea. I wasn’t sure if people would be in to it, but your comments have been so lovely I am blown away! 
> 
> I think it's obvious, but the italics is a flashback...
> 
> I hope you enjoy this chapter!

….  
….

“So if you’re happy with all the terms, the deposit will be five thousand euros, Mr Marquina. Is that something you’re okay to sign over today?”

Sergio hesitantly nodded as he sat opposite the hotel manager in the palatial lobby. He nudged his glasses up his nose, fidgeting slightly on the couch as he glanced sideways at Andrés before replying. 

“A-and what if something were to happen and the date needed to change, is this negotiable or would I lose the entire deposit?”

“Unfortunately so, Mr Marquina. As the terms clearly state, the deposit is non-refundable - so yes, you would lose your money and need to pay another deposit for a separate date.”

Sergio opened his mouth to respond, but was quickly interrupted by Andrés. 

“So let me get this straight… My brother has to pay thousands of euros to reserve the fourteenth of August, but if something were to happen and the date needed to change or be cancelled, he would need to pay _another_ deposit and lose all the money you are taking from him today?”

The hotel manager nodded - albeit hesitantly. “I’m afraid so, Sir. I don’t make the rules I’m afraid, but the deposit you’re paying today is just for the fourteenth of August, any other date would require a separate deposit.”

“Right”, Andrés murmured with distaste, hardly believing the ridiculous policy. He turned to face Sergio with a slight smirk, his eyebrows raised in a challenge. “Well, there’s no reason the date will change, _is there_ Sergio?” 

At the mention of his name, Sergio turned to face his brother with a frown. He wanted to smack the smirk off of Andrés’ face, he wasn’t in the mood to have _this_ discussion with him again, he was well aware of his opinion on the entire situation. 

“Of course not”, Sergio mumbled, swallowing down his uncertainty. “No reason whatsoever.” He slowly turned to face the hotel manager once more, forcing a smile on his face. 

“Wonderful”, she replied in delight. “In that case, I just need your credit card and then we can get everything confirmed for you.”

 _Well_ , Sergio thought as he busied himself with fishing his wallet out of his pocket. There was no going back now. 

….

“ _No_. No more, Silene. I can’t stomach another shot”, Raquel said with a laugh. 

"Yes you can! Just drink it! The quicker it’s gone the quicker I’ll get off your case”, Silene replied loudly as she sat back down, returning from the bar with a tray of shots and cocktails.

The trio were currently at an upscale hotel in central Madrid, ordering shot after shot and drink after drink. They’d started their night at a small club a few streets away, where the music was lively and the dancing was fun, but after a little while, Raquel decided she wasn’t in the mood to dance and really wanted to sit down and talk with her friends. She wanted to discuss anything and everything with them and just _laugh_ as they drank the night away. So they’d left the club and began walking, and before they knew it they were wandering into the bar at the Mandarin Oriental hotel, where they definitely _did not_ belong. The more they drank, the louder they were becoming, and Raquel knew they were definitely going to be kicked out of the fancy hotel sooner rather than later if they carried on. 

“Fine, but this is the last shot of tequila I have tonight. I don’t fancy spending tomorrow with my head in the toilet bowl.” 

The three of them laughed as they raised their glasses into the air, clinking them together and downing the shots in unison.

“ _Fuck_ ”, Raquel muttered as the warm liquid burned its way down her throat. “That really gets more disgusting the more you drink it.”

“Another?”, Silene asked with a smirk. 

“No!”, Raquel and Mónica yelled at the same time. “Absolutely not!”

As they sunk into another lively conversation, laughing heartedly and shouting over one another in excitement, a waiter made his way over to them with a look of apprehension in his eyes. 

“Erm, excuse me ladies, I hate to ruin your fun, but we’ve had a few complaints about the volume and the choice of language coming from the three of you.”

They all looked up at the man stood in front of them. Anger was slowly making its way onto each of their faces at being disturbed, and the waiter gulped loudly as his expression became that of a deer caught in headlights. 

“What?” Silene spat. “Who’s complained about us?”

The waiter yet again swallowed unsurely. “I’m sorry Miss, I can’t tell you that. But if I could just ask you to keep the noise down and try to refrain from the curse words please.”

Silene’s eyes widened in a flash, fury all over her expression. She was so angry, steam was very close to erupting from her ears. “Who _the fuck_ thinks they can tell us to stop swearing? It’s a free country, is it not?”

Raquel bit her lip and looked down with a smirk, hiding her amusement from the poor waiter. He’d definitely picked the wrong one of them to converse with when he chose Silene. 

“I-I’m sorry, my manager just told me to come and ask you to keep it down a bit. I didn’t want to tell you, I-I know you’re just having fun.”

Silene nodded slowly, her eyes squinting as she eyed him up and down. “Well… You tell your manager, if he wants us to stop fucking swearing, he can grow some balls and come and _fucking_ tell us, can’t he?”

The waiter nodded quickly as he backed away from the table, desperate to escape but not wanting to make any sudden movements. “Y-yes, of course.”

“ _Silene_ ”, Mónica admonished in a whisper as she looked at the waiter. “Pay no attention to her, we’ll keep it down.” 

The waiter smiled at Mónica, grateful at last to be free from Silene’s wrath. 

“Thank you, Miss”, he said hurriedly, turning on his heel and scampering away. 

“Món, what the fuck? No-one can tell us we can’t swear, it’s the twenty-first fucking century!”

Raquel rolled her eyes with a smile. “No-one is saying it isn’t, but you basically ate the poor guy alive through no fault of his own. Món had to save him from your claws somehow.”

“Oh fuck off, he was asking for it. Telling me I can’t swear and to keep it down. What a dick.”

“Now, now, language dear”, Raquel replied teasingly. 

The three of them laughed again, before falling into conversation once more - albeit a lot more quietly, much to Silene’s annoyance. 

“Seriously though”, Raquel said after a minute or two, looking around the bar and through the doorway into the lobby. “Who _did_ complain about us, there’s hardly anyone here?”

“Yeah, there’s only a handful of people in this entire hotel tonight, it’s not like we’re really disturbing anyone is it?” Mónica whispered. 

Silene looked over Raquel’s shoulder, in the distance in the lobby she could see two men sipping on their scotch, barely talking to each other, too engrossed in their phones and notebooks. 

“My money is on the two nerds over there on the couch. Look at them, boring and pretentious… I bet it was them complaining about us hot women having fun and being free. _Fucking typical_.”

Raquel chuckled. “You don’t know it was them… you’re just assuming.” She turned in her seat to look back at them, but she could barely make them out. All she could see was the side profile of a dapper gentleman and the back of another, his head full of thick, black hair. She did have to admit though, they certainly looked like the type of pompous people who would complain about women having some fun - however much she wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt. She watched them for a long moment, it felt strange as she could only see the back of his head, but one of the men seemed so familiar to her…

“I just know it was them”, Silene said, pulling Raquel out of her reverie. She turned to face her two friends once more, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that she knew that mop of unruly black hair. There was only one person she’d known with hair like that, and it couldn’t be him all these years later, it just couldn’t be… _could it?_

…. 

_Raquel wasn’t entirely sure how she’d ended up in this situation. She had already told Mónica she wasn’t in the mood for a party tonight… yet here she was anyway, already on her third vodka cocktail._

_She could have said no and stayed home, but where would be the fun in that? Who wanted to stay at home on their own on a Friday night, especially when every other student was at a rooftop party in the centre of Madrid. Everyone she knew had been invited tonight, she would have been an idiot to stay home alone, no matter how bitter her mood._

_She took another sip of her drink as Mónica stumbled towards her drunkenly, tugging her out of her daydream._

_“Why are you still stood here moping on your own”, the blonde mumbled incoherently. “Go and mingle and make new friends.”_

_Raquel chuckled, drunk Mónica was her favourite Mónica. “I don’t need anymore friends, thank you very much. I have plenty already.”_

_“Still, please go and mingle. I don’t like to see you by yourself, all sad because Miguel dumped you for that pretty dancer he met.”_

_Rolling her eyes, Raquel replied: “Well thank you for that! I know she’s pretty, I don’t need reminding. Anyway, I’m not sad, we dated for less than three months - I hardly care about him.”_

_“You do though, I know you do. So please go and mingle… if not for you, do it for me”, Mónica pouted, her expression as innocent as she could manage in her drunken state._

_“Fine”, Raquel muttered forlornly, raising her empty hand in surrender. She moved away from her friend and made her way through the bustling crowd that was growing bigger by the minute. She knew a lot of people at the party, many of them being her friends or people she’d met over her two and a half years studying at the university, but as she looked around she realised there were a significant number of faces she’d never seen before in her life. How was that possible when she’d been coming to these events for years and was in her third and final year of study?_

_She walked in the direction of the bar, spotting an empty space and stool to perch on to wait and be served - she needed more vodka to make it through this night. As she hurried to approach, she crashed forcefully into someone who was also making a beeline for the gap, the entire contents of their glass spilling down the front of Raquel’s white shirt with the force of the collision._

_“Jesus!”, she exclaimed, jumping back in shock and looking down at her now see-through top. “Watch where you’re going will you!?”_

_She looked up angrily, her eyes burning into the sorry expression of a guy who looked completely out of place in this party environment. He was dressed in a white shirt and grey blazer, and his chunky black glasses did nothing but add to the librarian look he was sporting. His eyes were deep pools of dark chocolate, currently wide open in shock and embarrassment, but it was the unruly mop of dark hair that caught her attention the most - especially when he raised a hand to brush it off of his forehead to see her better._

_“I-I’m so sorry, I completely didn’t see you! Please, let me just grab you a napkin”, he hurried to say. He rushed towards the bar and came back in an instant, passing her a handful of tissues to clean herself up with._

_Raquel dabbed pointlessly at her top, it was soaked through and her blue bra was very clearly on display to all - fucking fantastic. She sighed loudly as she looked up once more at the man in front of her, noticing how he was looking anywhere but at her, trying to keep his eyes off of her very visible breasts. She couldn’t help but smile slyly at his apparent nervousness, most guys would be ogling and trying to catch an eyeful if they had the opportunity he currently had._

_“What’s your name?” Raquel said after a moment of watching him._

_The guy looked into her eyes, squinting slightly, unsure as to why she wasn’t screaming at him or ripping him in two for ruining her outfit. “Erm, my name’s Sergio. I’m really sorry, a-about your shirt. I’ll pay for a new one, anything you need.”_

_“It’s fine”, she said quietly. She was intrigued by his obvious anxious nature, he definitely didn’t want to be at this party, it didn’t seem to be his scene at all, and if she wasn’t so pissed off about the whole incident she might have thought him quite attractive. “The damage is done, just be more careful next time, Sergio.”_

_“I will be”, he mumbled in reply. “It’s reasons like this that I don’t go to these kind of things. I nearly always make a fool of myself.”_

_She couldn’t help but smile, she knew her intuition was right. He didn’t normally come to parties like this, and now her curiosity was peaked._

_“Why are you here then? If not to spill drinks on girls and turn their tops see-through.”_

_Sergio blushed furiously as his lips turned upwards into a slight smile, unsure whether or not to enjoy her teasing._

_“Well”, he started. “My roommate Darko was coming and he dragged me along for company. I haven’t even seen him since we arrived though, so I’m hoping I can slip away unnoticed very soon and get home to carry on with my reading. I don’t have a long list of friends, so it’s not like anyone would miss me.”_

_She laughed quietly and bit her lip as she looked down at the floor, attempting to hide her amusement from him. He was proving to be quite adorable without even trying._

_“Do you make a habit of running away from social events to return home to your books then?”_

_“No”, he replied honestly. “Normally I don’t come to social events at all… so I never usually need to run away from them.”_

_She laughed louder now. Why was this stupid conversation becoming the highlight of her day? A stupid conversation with a strangely, curious nerd with glasses no less._

_“And why were you rushing back to the bar if you’re planning to escape?” she continued on. “You seemed to have a full drink before you spilt the entire contents of your cup down me.”_

_The rose blush on his cheeks turned more crimson now, and he grimaced slightly as she spoke of his clumsiness so casually._

_“W-well - they erm… they forgot my lemon.”_

_Raquel’s eyebrows furrowed as she looked at him quizzically. “Your lemon?”_

_“Yes”, he murmured, and she could see he was embarrassed at voicing this out loud to a total stranger. “It’s one of my ridiculous neuroses to be honest. But, when I have vodka, I have to have lemon in it… and, well - they forgot to put any in, so I was going back for it.”_

_Her expression softened as she studied his face, his eyes refusing to meet hers as he looked down at the empty cup in his hands, his fingers fiddling nervously with the rim._

_“That’s not ridiculous”, she whispered. “Not at all.”_

_He looked up with a smile, his eyes radiating a kindness she hadn’t noticed in him before._

_Sergio cleared his throat, breaking the eye contact between them after a long moment._

_“Well”, he said as he shuffled nervously on his feet, “I’ll let you go on your way and enjoy the party. I’m sorry again for ruining your shirt, really sorry.”_

_“Don’t worry about it”, she replied honestly, stepping past him and towards the bar. “Enjoy your books once you manage to escape”, she threw teasingly over her shoulder as she passed._

_He chuckled as he glanced back at her, before turning away to walk towards the exit. Suddenly she called out to him:_

_“Raquel.”_

_He swung around to look at her once more, a look of confusion on his face as he took a couple of steps closer to her again. “Sorry?”_

_“My name”, she said. “It’s Raquel. Just in case we ever meet again, and now you can add another friend to your list.”_

_“Raquel”, he repeated softly, her name rolling off his tongue like honey. He smiled widely and she smiled back, before she turned away and walked back towards the bar, unable to hide her giddy expression. At least something had happened at this party to bring a smile to her face, even if it was at the cost of her favourite shirt._

….  
….

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’ll be back very soon with Chapter 3! Until then, find me on twitter or let me know what you think below xo


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